


bone + tissue

by llien



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Universe, Dream Eater Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Kissing It Better, Literal dream eating, M/M, Oral Fixation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-15 22:33:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17537576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/llien/pseuds/llien
Summary: Riku ducked down to meet Sora’s gaze, because even with him sitting on the dresser he still didn’t reach Riku’s height. “Are you hurt? Do you want me to cure you?”Sora shook his head slowly, listlessly. “Is something else, Riku. Like,” he grimaced, bringing his fingers to his mouth as if he was going to cough or sneeze, but it passed. “Something wrong.”





	bone + tissue

“Riku,” Sora whined, but it was low and sad, pained. Sora normally whined at Riku to make him lunch or to tie his shoe or because he was cold and wanted to borrow Riku’s pockets. This Sora, with blue eyes haggard and exhaustion imprinted in his bones... this Sora was just tired. “I don’t feel good,” he whispered, bringing the heel of his palm up to rub at one eye.

Riku ducked down to meet Sora’s gaze, because even with him sitting on the dresser he still didn’t reach Riku’s height. “Are you hurt? Do you want me to cure you?”

Sora shook his head slowly, listlessly. “Is something else, Riku. Like,” he grimaced, bringing his fingers to his mouth as if he was going to cough or sneeze, but it passed. “Something wrong.”

Riku grasped Sora’s forearm between them, willing life and energy and sunshine back into Sora. Bells rung and flowers bloomed and green curling vines spread from Riku’s hand across Sora’s skin before fading, but Sora still blinked at him, as if he was lost in a fog.

 _Fuck,_ Riku thought, mind racing. What was it, what was wrong? No cuts, no bruises, no visible wounds, Sora hadn’t hit his head. Anti-form had slipped away like water sloughing off his skin, dissipating into hissing puddles as it hit the ground. Had some stayed behind and infected him? Lingering under his skin? Or was it something else, another sinister tactic targeting Sora again?

 _“Riku,”_ Sora said his name as if those two syllables alone could make him feel better. “I’m tired.”

“I’m sorry,” Riku murmured, gaze darting all across Sora as if he could find what was wrong if he looked hard enough. All he could see was the truth of Sora’s words — when he gave into his rage and the anger festering in his heart, expending power and a strength he could neither control nor understand, it affected him terribly afterwards. Sora would sleep like the dead to recover. “Do you want to go to bed?”

Sora nodded, reaching with painfully slow gestures to remove his clothes, as if he was moving through water. Riku’s heart went out to him. He took on so much burden of being the hero for them all, and this was how he was repaid, with a body breaking down and a heart with no place to rest.

“It’ll be morning by the time you’re done,” Riku scoffed, easing Sora’s jacket off and pulling his shirt over his head. Sora gave a weak laugh, toeing his shoes and socks off to land with thuds on the ground. When Riku bent down to dig through the dresser Sora sat on to find his usual clothes, he felt Sora’s heels land on his shoulder blades. Riku shot him a look. He apparently didn’t feel _that_ bad to not mess around still.

All he could find was one of Riku’s shirts and he figured that was good enough for the moment. Sora wiggled his pants off and Riku helped him put the shirt on, and then with unabashed heaviness, Sora dropped his head against Riku’s chest.

“Right here,” Sora mumbled.

“Come on,” Riku cajoled. “At least let me change and I’ll get you into bed.”

“Fiiiine,” Sora groaned, leaning back to rest against the wall, carelessly shoving the miscellaneous knickknacks around on top the dresser. Some of Riku’s earlier panic subsided. Clearly Sora wasn’t too bad off. It almost made him feel a little silly, though he would never regret fussing first and being embarrassed later.

Riku changed quickly, and maybe he would’ve felt slightly self-conscious about basically stripping in front of Sora, but his eyes were closed and his breathing was settling already. Riku kicked their clothes aside so he wouldn’t trip on them, then rested his hand on Sora’s bare thigh. Like always, Sora was alarmingly hot to touch. It used to be a constant source of worry for new teachers and nurses, but now Riku was slowly building the theory that it had something to do with all the hearts housed in Sora.

“Sleepyhead, not yet,” Riku teased, squeezing Sora’s leg lightly. Sora opened one eye, not glaring but sure as hell not happy either. Without thinking it through, Riku slid his hand up Sora’s thigh, intending to grab him and lift him up. Sora shuddered instead, and Riku froze.

Sora’s lashes flickered and he gave Riku a hazy still drowsy look. Riku swallowed dryly, lips parting. He hadn’t intended that, not really, not like _that,_ and _crap_ why did Sora have the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen? It really was an intoxicating shade of blue, framed by dark lashes. It felt like Riku could stare at them forever, reading every feeling that flashed across them.

“Riku,” Sora pleaded, and he knew already. No matter what Sora asked, or wanted, or demanded, he’d do. Riku always had. He’d fuss and grumble and complain and nag but fulfilling Sora’s tiny wishes was a secret pleasure, more so now than ever when he had a lifetime’s worth of mistakes to make up for. “Kiss me?”

Riku drew up short, heart skipping a beat. Did Riku want to? God, yes he did, always. Should he? That was a trickier question.

“Stop thinking,” Sora groaned, reaching out to rest his hand on Riku’s chest. “Kiss me better.”

“You mean kiss it and make it better?” Riku asked wryly, knowing already but spelling it out because some part of Riku would always be petty with Sora.

“If you know then do it,” Sora grumbled. “I’m gonna sleep in exactly twenty seconds and I want to kiss you and think about that instead of how… _icky_ this feels.”

“Icky,” Riku repeated under his breath, but he leaned closer, sliding both hands to settle around Sora’s hips, purposefully ignoring the way Riku’s shirt folded around the pressure, exposing Sora’s hip between shirt and shorts. “Someone’s been rubbing off.”

“Jealous?”

Sora sounded almost arrogant about it. Riku shot him a glare. “As if.”

“Then,” Sora suggested, as if it had nothing to do with him at all, “do something about it.”

It was the lamest attempt at challenging Riku yet, but Riku was horribly in love and so it still made him laugh. “You’re an idiot, you know that?”

“Ten seconds left,” Sora murmured, eyes slipping closed even as he smiled. It had definitely been more than twenty seconds, but Riku wasn’t going to call him on it. Instead he leaned forward, pressing his lips against Sora’s in a chaste kiss.

“Better?” Riku murmured, hovering there with his eyes closed. He inched his hands up towards Sora’s waist, waiting.

Sora hummed. “Not yet! Try again.”

Riku kissed him again, then pulled back, “How’s that?”

“Nope, but maybe if you kiss my cheek it’ll work?” Sora wiggled a hand up between them to tap twice on his right cheek.

Riku glanced to find Sora grinning cheekily, and he huffed an exasperated sigh. “One more, then bed, okay?”

Sora hummed something like agreement, so Riku lifted one hand to cup his cheek. He grazed his thumb just under his eyes. Sora looked so tired. In the daylight he could run and fight and make friends, but at night he seemed worn out.

Worn out, exhausted, and terrified of his dreams. Almost every night now, Riku had to wrench the nightmares bleeding into him away.

Tenderly, Riku kissed his cheek, and Sora sighed as if it really had made him feel better. So Riku kissed his other cheek, then across both eyes, and then he kissed Sora fully against his mouth, tilting his chin up. Sora’s arms came up around Riku’s shoulders and Riku held him close.

When Sora parted his lips, Riku didn’t need anymore encouragement. Tentatively, he tasted Sora’s lips, then slid languidly along Sora’s tongue.

 _Fear_ crowded on Riku’s tongue and dripped thick like honey down his throat. He almost bit on Sora’s lip in his shock when he jerked back. Sora blinked hazily, reaching up to wipe at his mouth.

“Riku?” Sora sounded confused, rightly so. Riku stared back. It… it’d tasted like a nightmare. But Riku only ate them when he was in Sora’s dreams. Why would there be one now, let alone in Sora’s mouth?

“I,” Riku touched his fingertips to his mouth, lips parted around his next word, but he swallowed it down. “Sorry, just,” he frowned. “You didn’t feel that?”

“Feel what?” Sora asked, more alert now.

 _“That,_ you know,” Riku waved one hand. He never told Sora exactly how he got rid of his nightmares. Tearing them up to swallow messily with coagulated ink dripping down from his mouth and staining his hands didn’t seem like the best way to comfort him. Now it almost felt like a secret he had to keep. Riku… enjoyed it too much. “Uhm.”

Sora was frowning now, brows set heavy over his eyes. “Did I have food or something in my mouth?”

 _Yeah,_ Riku almost blurted but he bit down hard to keep that caged in, laughing nervously instead. “Uh, guess I imagined it.”

Was it because Sora was half-asleep? Still, if he was having nightmares…

It was Riku’s job to get rid of it. He was Sora’s dreameater, after all.

“Come here,” Riku said, pulling Sora back closer. Sora didn’t resist, lashes fluttering closed with all the trust in the world. It made Riku feel obscurely guilty, but he swallowed that down too.

Another sweet kiss, then Riku nudged Sora’s lips apart and _oh, God,_ it was _fear, rage, despair,_ sliding thick down Riku’s throat as he worked to swallow around them.

They felt heavy, filling, emphasizing how powerfully they’d affected Sora. _Pain_ coated his teeth, his tongue, until he wondered how Sora couldn’t taste it on Riku himself. He forced it down and groaned, and Sora made a desperate sound low in his throat, grabbing onto Riku’s arms.

Riku could see it in his mind’s eye, the slick oil that had been on Sora’s skin covering him now, staining his lips and chin where it spilled from his mouth. It made Riku feel filthy, obscene, and _so good._

Riku tilted his head and tasted _terror,_ and that one made his knees week, had him leaning against the dresser to support his weight. When Riku was in Sora’s dreams he could eat as he pleased, swallowing and slurping and tearing them apart with his bare hands, sucking on his own fingers to clean them of the filth, and Sora would never know if Riku wrapped his nightmare-coated hand around himself to release the growing tension and desire. It’d all disappear come morning, and Riku would wake up knowing Sora had slept undisturbed.

He couldn’t tell Sora ever, he couldn’t ever know how it made Riku feel. If Sora knew he’d make Riku stop and this was the one thing Riku could do for Sora. Riku would swallow a thousand negative feelings if it’d make the weight on Sora’s shoulders easier.

Sora pulled back, breathing hard, and Riku licked _failure_ off his lips like sauce from the most obsequious cut of meat he’d ever had. “Riku,” Sora breathed. “Riku.”

Riku cleared his throat, hoping Sora wouldn’t open his eyes to see him covered in everything he’d tried to swallow. “Yeah?” His voice came out rough and abused in a terribly suggestive manner.

“I really do feel better,” Sora said, then laughed, lashes fluttering on his cheeks, content to linger there.

“Good,” Riku managed, but he still sounded shot to hell and that was enough to draw Sora out of his dreamy haze.

His wide eyes were the first indicator of something wrong.

Riku licked his lips, watched Sora’s eyes flicker to the motion, then tasted the lingering nightmare there. The realization hit all at once.

Sora could _see._

 _Oh fuck, oh shit,_ Riku thought, blood draining from his face and from the hard-on he’d been thoroughly ignoring. He tried to muster any kind of thought, an excuse, _something,_ but his brain was still riding the nightmare high and currently reminiscing on the last time Riku had gotten off while covered in Sora’s dreams.

“Riku,” Sora murmured, eyes wide, “was… was that in my…”

“I eat them,” Riku blurted.

_Fuck._

Sora started. “You… eat… did I fall asleep?”

Riku gave a stuttering nervous laugh. “Kind of? I uhm. I eat your dreams. I’m a dreameater, Sora. You know?”

Sora’s brows shot up. _He isn’t disgusted yet, there’s hope!_ Riku’s heart told him, because his brain was still out of commission. “That was... literal?”

The neutral tone Sora adopted squeezed the nervous laughter from Riku, until he was left biting his lip anxiously, a habit he'd adopted when chewing on his fingernails had been banned. He nodded jerkily, unable to meet Sora's gaze without feeling guilty.

Sora nodded, eyes still maddeningly blue and round. “So every night you… you eat my dreams?”

“Just your nightmares,” Riku hastily corrected, darting up to catch Sora's eyes and then just as quickly looking away. He’d thought more often than he was proud to admit about trying one of Sora’s dreams, but they were in short supply nowadays, and Riku felt too selfish to give even a taste. “The ones that hurt you.”

Sora considered this. “Does it hurt you? To eat them?”

Riku shook his head.

“What do they taste like?”

“Uhm,” Riku hesitated. While he was over the moon that Sora wasn’t rejecting him for what was an admittedly kinky and incredibly disturbing pastime, he was also mildly concerned that Sora was taking it this well. “Not like much, I guess. They just… feel…” _really good._

Sora hummed, then without preamble he lifted his hand and pressed his thumb against Riku’s lips. Riku froze, meeting Sora’s eyes. Understanding intuitively, he parted his lips, and Sora’s thumb slid inside, fingertip pressing hard over the ridge of his bottom teeth before settling on Riku’s tongue. He recoiled slightly from surprise, but relaxed, shuddering when Sora applied pressure. He pulled out, a sensual glide that left Riku’s knees weak and thighs trembling.

Coating Sora’s thumb was the nightmare tar Riku no longer even glanced twice at. He stared at it, then slid it into his own mouth.

Riku nearly moaned.

Sora was frowning though, and he pulled his slightly clean thumb out. “I can’t taste or feel it.”

Riku licked his lips. “Maybe… maybe it’s because it’s your own dream.”

“I guess,” Sora acquiesced. He glanced at his thumb, then at Riku, and then held his hand out. “Here.”

His breath quickened. “Are you sure?” What he really wanted to say was _yes, please, please, please let me._

Then, Sora grinned, sly and curling. “It looks like you _really_ like it, and it made me feel better, I think. So, yeah, I’m sure. Here, Riku.” He shifted his hand just a smidge closer, and Riku barely touched his wrist before he wrapped his lips around Sora’s thumb and sucked.

 _Pain_ revisited him, striking hot like lightning down his throat, and he groaned.

**Author's Note:**

> Well I'm honestly surprised by the reception this got. Thanks for all the comments/hits/kudos! Especially on something so odd
> 
> twitter @_oathbreaker


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